I thought I knew everything there was to know about social media marketing, but boy was I wrong! I was introduced to a whole different side of social media after enrolling in my first social media marketing class.

I want you to be one step ahead of the game when it comes to understanding social media marketing, so here is a list of the 5 most important lessons that I learned from Dr. Denny McCorkle’s social media class.

5 lessons learned from Social Media Marketing

The biggest lesson that I learned is that it is important that you develop a PLN before beginning your online marketing campaign. Developing a personal learning network allows you to create a consistent and organized brand identity across all social media platforms. Your content should communicate the same identity and idea so that your followers or potential employers capture a concrete sense of your personal brand.

2. One lesson I learned is that Hootsuite makes your social media life so much easier! Hootsuite is a dashboard that allows you to link different social media sites to one account. Instead of sharing content individually on each site, you can access Hootsuite and share content across all social media platforms in one click.

3. Another lesson I learned is that social media takes time. When most people think of social media, they think of overnight sensations on YouTube and Twitter. That’s not the case. In order to build a sizable following on different social media platforms, you must be patient and also willing to understand and correctly execute social media tools such as Klout, HootSuite, LinkedIn, Google+ etc.

4. I also learned that LinkedIn is the source for all your networking needs. LinkedIn groups are a great way to connect with like-minded and near-minded people in your career interest. Interacting in these groups will allow you propel your image to your favorite companies/potential employers.

5. Finally, I learned that it is extremely important to engage and make connections with your social media followers. On Twitter, engage by sending personalized thank yous, compliments, and by retweeting others. On LinkedIn, you should endorse people for their top skills. Engagement is important because it is one technique that allows you to build your brand identity/following.

Takeaway

Social media is not as easy as it seems. I suggest that you enroll yourself into a social media marketing class to fully understand how the different social media platforms operate. You will be just as surprised as I was to learn about all of the neat tools to help you build a concrete social media identity!